The question “How slow can you go?” is answered with sublime poise (quite literally) by actor Lee Kang-Sheng in Tsai Ming-Liang’s extraordinary Journey To The West (Xi You) - a film that may well be the last word in (and overtly on the subject of) ‘Slow Cinema’. A follow-up to the Taiwanese director’s 2012 short Walker – which originally formed part of the portmanteau film Beautiful 2012 - Journey takes the same premise, a Buddhist monk walking at something slower than tortoise pace, relocates it in Marseille and introduces the always fascinating wild card of Denis Lavant.

The words ‘hypnotic’ and ‘mesmerising’ are over-used with regard to such abstract cinema, but the words genuinely apply in this remarkable venture which is more like a performance or installation art project than an ‘art film’ in the regular sense. Journey is most likely to flourish in very specialised niches, both at festivals and on the art fair circuit, where it should enjoy a prestigious ‘event’ status, especially when screened - as it was in the Berlinale Panorama - on a gigantic IMAX screen, the projection format truly adding a special dimension.

Consisting of only 14 shots of varying lengths - from very brief to a centrepiece of approximately 20 minutes - the film shows two men, narratively unconnected, who finally come together in an extraordinary (and very amusing) sequence that shows off both actors’ physical skills and sense of timing. The film begins with a lengthy close-up in darkness of a largely unblinking Lavant, his weatherbeaten features (down which a single tear eventually rolls) filling the screen like a craggy lunar landscape.

Further shots of Lavant’s face by day are interspersed with the progress of a red-robed monk (Tsai regular Lee Kang-Sheng) as he undertakes a spiritual and physical exercise of walking in extreme slow motion across Marseille, beginning in one of the crumbling, deserted buildings that are a favourite Tsai locale. In some shots, the monk is briefly glimpsed in the crowd, in others he’s at the centre of the image, filling the screen, and sometimes (in shots that confirm Tsai’s status as a deadpan humorist and actor Lee as his Zen Buster Keaton), the monk materialises improbably - passing outside a window or glimpsed in the distance in a mirror.

This very sculptural film makes dazzling use of the mirrored canopy of Marseilles’ Port Vieux Pavillion - in one magically framed shot, making a stretch of waterfront resemble an ‘infinity pool’, and in a teasing sign-off, leaving the viewer searching for the monk in an upside-down crowd, Where’s Wally? style (a touch of delicate jazz piano sneaks in bewitchingly at this point).

Marseilles itself is another star of the film, its population reacting with the players in two shots in particular. One, the film’s centrepiece, has the monk - a silhouette backlit by a shaft of daylight - descending a staircase while passersby ignore, observe or puzzle over him. In the other, he moves past a busy corner bar, while this time Lavant follows him at a distance, also slowly and in pretty much perfect synch.

The film is a tribute to the astonishing physical and mental discipline of Lee Kang-Sheng, one of the great Everyman figures in modern cinema, and to the elegance and mastery of a director whose films represent a subtle, constantly surprising and often moving brand of minimalism that’s entirely his own. Journey To The West shows that style at its simplest and most rarefied, but also, in a gloriously counter-intuitive way, its most directly pleasurable.

Production companies: House on Fire, Neon Productions, Résurgences, Homegrown Films

One has to ask if the English title of cryptic Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang’s Journey to the West is a sly reference to Stephen Chow’s demon-hunting hit of last year, with which it has nothing but the title in common. Instead Tsai returns to his Buddhist monk who walks through the city at a snail’s pace to the general indifference of the populace and, of course, most of the film-going public. Yet there will be followers of this short but patience-trying film, and its message to get off the grindstone of unhappiness and find inner peace will fly at selected festivals after its Berlin premiere. It’s hard to imagine other audiences.

This is the third installment of the series, after the Asian-set Walking on Water (part of the film Letters from the South) and the original Walker (part of Beautiful 2012) with Lee Kang-sheng returning to the role of the stooped, red-robed monk who treads through streets and squares and up and down staircases in exaggerated slo-mo with his fingers in a blissful mudra. All around him Antoine Herberle’s hidden camera captures the bustling life of the city, which in the present case means Marseilles, as busy people ignore him or politely look the other way.

One man, however (played by Denis Lavant), decides to imitate his penitential steps and follows him like a disciple. We have previously seen the man’s suffering face in extreme close-up and profile, in fixed long-held shots emphasizing his unhappy heavy breathing. Now he seems to have found a purpose in life.
The setups are often startling, even witty, like the monk passing by a store dummy or entering an empty screen where red paint literally seems to be drying. Tourists furtively snap his picture and the bemused idlers in an outdoor café watch him until they lose interest. The final shot turns the city upside down in a huge mirror.

Production got underway today on Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, a stereoscopic 3-D film which reunites action star Jet Li and Chinese director Tsui Hark 14 years after their most successful collaboration on New Dragon Gate Inn.

The festival will open Tuesday, Oct. 12 in Jiangyin, a small city in eastern China’s Jiangsu Province. The media predicted a lackluster opening, as Jiangyin has no airport. [Fan Bingbing and Huang Xiaoming have already announced that they are not going.]

It is tradition for the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Festival, one of the biggest film events in China, to be held in a different host city each year.

(Oct. Appearing at the Metro i Do Concert, Charlene requested a microphone stand for support as she woke up feeling dizzy and nauseous, probably due to an ear infection. She was scheduled to fly overseas the next day for filming. Charlene admitted that she wanted a holiday but that it was just wishful thinking. [Give this girl a break! Her health seems to be an ongoing problem.] The Twins also have a November 13th concert in Macau on their schedule. (Sina)

William Chan, Charlene Choi

Elsewhere, over the weekend, William Chan Wai-Ting publicly declared his love for Charlene on his weibo. (Sina) Charlene admitted through Emperor that two have been dating for 3 months and would make an announcement about their relationship when she returns to Hong Kong from a mainland fan club meeting. (Sina), 2

October 5, 2009

Tsai Ming-liang pays tribute to Francois Truffaut in the first movie made under the Louvre’s new filmmaking initiative.

Taipei Times - Short Takes

Kungfu Cyborg: Metallic Attraction
Hong Kong’s China-market-friendly (read: suffocatingly naive) version of Michael Bay’s Transformers series holds back until late before the action kicks in. A policeman must look after a cyborg that has joined the force, but romantic complications between the robot and “his” colleagues take the plot hostage before an evil cyborg can do his thing. As the title suggests, there’s more love stuff in this one, but the reviews are even worse than for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which at least had splendid effects. Note: The English title is reversed in some markets. Directed by Jeff Lau (劉鎮偉), perhaps best known for Operation Pink Squad (霸王女福星) and its sequel from the late 1980s.

Khalil Fong (方大同) is definitely not your average pop singer. With his less-than-sculptural face, mop-top hair, black-rimmed glasses and waifish body, Fong looks more like your high school geek than a singer on MTV.